Another outdoor news letter to the editor......

[fishorgolf]

James_walleye, I know you want to believe deep down in your heart that all 20 of those fish survive but the facts just do not back that up. You can use all your knowledge etc. but you are still going to have deep hook sets, etc, etc. and some of these fish will die. even if we do not want to believe that.

But I do agree that knowledge is a wonderfull thing and can greatly reduce hooking mortality. I personally think the rules book should have a section just on this. Of course not everyone will read it and take it to heats but some will and that would be and improvement.

[james_walleye]

I never said they all survive. Read it again, i said DNR numbers say most survive meaning if 85-90% survive that 2 won't make it. What i'm trying to say is this an average of all fish the DNR is saying? Isn't it possible to get to a number of 85% because you have too many people on the lake that don't properly take care of the fish and that over 50% of the fish they release arent making it but the people who do everything right and taking care of the fish might have 95% of them survive, thus getting at an 85% overall rate? I realize that there is a chance that the fish i release might not make it but i give that fish, as well as probably everyone reading this on this website, a great chance. If everyone did it right you can't tell me the survival rate wouldnt be better than the 85% the DNR is saying. So yeah, put something in the rule books, it can't hurt. The problem is the people doing this probably never even pick one up and open it. Like i said, i believe education is the key to helping this situation, but i'm also realistic enough to know that nothing short of making a 16 year old take a class before he buys his first fishing license and including this topic will do the trick. This isnt going to happen. So i dont know what the answer is. You can't say anything to someone you see doing this because then your a jack___.

[Willy]

One thing that noone has said yet and I think it is a huge part of the reason that the mortality on Milly is so darn high. It is the corking and rigging capital of the world. Those two ways of fishing result in alot more deeply hooked fish than say jigging or cranking or blading. You know how it goes, feed em line, let em take it, etc.

I know alot of it is probably how people handle and release fish, but I have to believe that a good percentage of them are screwed before they even make it to the boat because they have the hooks halfway down their [PoorWordUsage] already.

[james_walleye]

How long do you guys let fish take the bait on a cork? I usually don't give em much more than about a second. But i dont like jumbo leeches either, i figure if they grab a medium leech they should have it right away. Your right though, it is the livebait capitol. I saw a guy last year catch one about 26". The fish got into the net, was put on the floor of the boat. He then dug into the cooler and got a beer, cracked it, took a swig. Took his sweatshirt off. Dug the hook out. Dug the camera out. Took a picture. 3 minutes later the fish goes back in the water with what i figured was a 0% chance of surviving. We've all seen this numerous times. How many more fish did this boat catch that day and do this to?

[fishorgolf]

I wish I new the answer myself. Maybe this subject weights so heavy on me is I have to see these dead fish floating day, after day, after day. I can't just pack up my boat and go home and forget about it. Well at least I have plenty of fertilizer for the garden right?

Personally I WILL say something if I see someone being a fool. I don't care if they think I'm a jack..... but honestly, I don't see enough people releasing like this to account for all the dead fish. There has to be more to it.....

[Willy]

Not talking about myself, but I see it all the time. Guys giving them forever to swallow it. I usually just lean to em and give em the steel.

Also, I know there are guys out there that do stuff like you are talking about, but I think most do a pretty good job and there is still a high mortality rate.

[james_walleye]

Remember, you don't have to be as blatant as what i stated either. You don't have to look like a jack... to have a fish out of the water to long. I just don't think you can shut down the walleye season on Mille Lacs when the water temp hits 70 degrees. The business up there is based on walleye fishing and you can't shut it down in the busiest part of the summer.

[fishorgolf]

I totally agree there is no way that they can shut the lake down. What I believe would help is for people to show some restraint. When the fish are committing suicide like they were last June do people need to just keep catching and catching and catching. I know they are hoping for that one really big one but when does a concern for the lake make them stop? I understand there is nothing like catching 20-30 big walleyes a day but no matter how careful you are many of these are going to die. Is that ability to tell people I caught 25 fish between 22-26" in a day really worth the impact on the lake?

[james_walleye]

I can't speak for the people that live in that area and get to fish it day after day, for those people i could agree with you. But how do you tell someone who comes up for one weekend of the year or one week out of a year that they should stop fishing after catching 5 walleyes in a day?

[fishorgolf]

I do not think it is the people coming up for one weekend that are the problem. These people usually have a weekend etc. planed way ahead of time and can not usually change these planes when a bite gets hot. The people I see are here over and over and over again until the hot bite stops catching and releasing 100's of fish. And 90% are not local. many drive up fish and drive home.

[james_walleye]

How do you know they arent local? I get up 1 weekend a year, 4th of July. But i love the lake and pay attention to whats going on up there. I'm hoping to get a fish house out of the Red Door or another place up there soon.

[fishorgolf]

Because I talk with allot of them. Also I know people at most of the resorts and this is what they tell me. Admittidly not perfect knowledge This can be verified by other posts from last year. But this is all here nor there. I believe a vast majority of people really care about this lake and do not want to do anything to harm it.

I hope you do get a place up here! I also hope I do not come across as a person that does not want people coming up here because the is not the case at all. Without people coming up here and enjoying the lake we would not have what we have as far as reasturants, bars, supermarkets, gas stations etc. So everyone please come on up and enjoy the lake but please show some restraint!

[bturck]

How about those who feel they have to jam their whole hand into the fish's gills in order to handle them while taking the picture? I see this continually on the fishing shows, large fish, large meat hook stuck into the gill forcing the gill plate to an unnatural angle. How much damage was done to the gill rakers and then the fish is put back in the lake. I'm sure that impacts the survival rate. What wrong with leaving a large fish like that in the net and unhooking or in the case of the slip bobber if you can't see the hook cut the line. Just my nickels worth of logic. Bill